This is a very special story and I can't tell it better than Momma Jen, so here is Jen's e-mail:

Dear Friends and Family,This week has been a whirlwind of excitement, joy, nervousness, anxiety, elation, and preparation for me and Dave (and our dog Nomini). On Monday, while Dave was working on fixing my computer and the chimneysweep was working on fixing our fireplace, we received a call that a little girl had been put up for adoption and that we were chosen by her birthmother as the adoptive parents. The little girl was waiting for us in a hospital in upstate South Carolina.What followed included meetings with social workers and lawyers, a day of nervously waiting for paperwork to be finalized, a major shopping trip to Babies R Us, and an adrenaline-fueled push to assemble the carseat, pack and play, and bassinett (Dave did an amazing job at putting everything together).This morning (January 7th), Dave and I left Charleston at 5:30 a.m. and drove to a hospital in Greer, South Carolina. There, we met our little daughter--Anna Jane Henderson--who is (in our opinion) the most amazing thing we've seen. Her birthparents are both hispanic, and she has a beautiful (very full) head of dark black hair. She has big cheeks and loves to cuddle.We're learning more and more about her with each hour that passes. Right now she's swaddled up tightly and sleeping soundly in her bassinett. Some of you may not even have known we were considering adoption. We finished the home study back in mid-October and never thought our adoption would happen this fast. Our social worker did do a great job at gently reminding us that it could happen quickly. I guess we never really let it sink in, though, that we could be blessed in such a way.I've attached a few pictures of Anna. She was born on January 5 around 2 p.m. and weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz. As we take more photos in the coming days we hope to post them to http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenhenspics.Thanks to all of you who heard through the grapevine about the last three days and offered love and support. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful network of family and friends and we can't wait for Anna to benefit from that same support.- Jennifer, David, Anna, and Nomini

Isn't that incredible? I'm so happy for everyone! Say what you want about the economy and the state of the world, but 2009 is looking up for some very special people in my life so far!

Well...

... except that in all of the excitement, Jen broke her foot yesterday! However, as our friend Jenna said "this will just force her to sit down and do what Anna really needs, which is just to relax and cuddle." Also, our friend Kari said "There always needs to be a glitch or something to add to the birth story--I'd take a broken ankle over some of the stories I heard! :)"